Concentrate Not
by Kitera
Summary: What-if Vergil didn't remain in hell and found himself instead crashing a job that Lady and Dante were on? No pairing. Just Dante hitting on Lady and her being difficult.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:** Random untitled scene that is kind of a what-if Vergil made an appearance in the human world before Trish lured Dante to Mundas' island in the first game. It was originally written with just dialogue, I opened the scene up a bit with exposition, there is still a good bit that the reader themself needs to figure out as they read for themselves. I wrote this while my American Literature class was studying the Modernist Period of American Literature and mimics to a degree the way that Hemingway wrote Hills Like White Elephants, minus being intoxicated in the process. Enjoy.

**Disclaimer:** Devil May Cry and it's characters are property of Capcom. I am making no money off of this work, this is purely for entertainment.

* * *

"Can we get back to the job?" Lady asked irritably, they had been fighting for what felt like hours already. Chances were though that they'd only been fighting a few moments. She supposed that having believed one to be dead for the last however many months the arguing was bound to be the first thing to start after the shocked silence they'd endured initially. But this was the last place either of them had ever expected Vergil to turn up after Temen-ni-Gru. He was gone, locked away, and presumed dead. He was supposed to be; anyway.

"Yeah…first things first, you're dead." Dante commented off-hand. Well he had thought he was, Vergil had only fallen off a cliff once the tie connecting the worlds had started to fray leaving only precious moments for him to return to the human world.

"You didn't believe that I was dead, did you brother?" His tone was flat, unfazed, and out of place in their surroundings. The dank hallway seeming to swallow Vergil's words immediately after they left his mouth rather than allow them to be heard by those standing before him.

"Well yeah I mighta." Dante responded while scratching at his head.

"Ow…"

"Get your head in the job you massive baboon. And you… don't make me shoot you." Lady's voice was hard as she spoke. If one knew what to look for they could see how she was trying not to shake the pain from smacking Dante upside the head out of her hand as she placed it back at her hip. Her eyes hardening as they focused on Vergil, looking him in the eye to show that she meant business.

"Try."

"Down girl, the job remember." Dante teased one of his hands going to rest on her shoulder.

"Don't touch me."

"After you." He said instead letting his hand drop uselessly to his side. He glanced once at his brother as she moved on ahead slipped in behind her, he'd rather between her and his brother just in case. He wasn't too sure what his brother had up his sleeve this time.

* * *

"So babe, what are you doing later?" Dante asked trying to break the tense silence that had fallen over the three of them in the last several minutes. There'd been a few lesser demons a couple hallways back but for the moment they were free and clear.

"Washing your blood off my boots." She responded far to calm for the situation.

Lady wasn't one to go cold all of the sudden. She had too much emotion tied up inside her for her to ever be one hundred percent professional on a job. And yet she was, in the last few months Dante had come to learn that she was pissed and was not surprised when he felt a sharp pain and the beginning of his body healing a wound. He fingered the slow trickle of blood in his forehead and stared at the back of her head.

"C'mon that wasn't necessary."

"Obviously it was."

"Well lookit here, guess we are twins after all, we even match, got the same scar in the middle of my forehead." Dante was almost gleeful seeing his twin react much the same way.

"Dante, if I have to put another bullet in you, it'll be a whole clip."

"Easy, I'll behave. Promise." He said, his hands coming up in a defensive manner. He may have a much quicker healing factor and almost immortality in a sense but that didn't mean that getting shot didn't hurt for the few seconds that there was actually pain.

"You never understood the concept of manners."

"If he's going to behave you are too. …It's like babysitting six year olds." She muttered holding back a sigh of frustration.

"You actually babysat?

"Shut up." She hissed.

"We are like six year olds?" Vergil asked raising an eyebrow at her childish response. It felt more like he was the one babysitting.

"Go to hell."

"You gotta relax a bit Lady." Dante said shooting her a mischievous grin when she looked back at him over her shoulder.

"I can relax when your kind isn't trying to kill mine."

"If you live that long." Vergil muttered with a desire to roll his eyes. They walked another twenty feet and a trap went off, apparently there was something of a challenge for him here.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N:** So I know I said that this was only a one-shot but I couldn't get it out of my head. So I wrote another chapter to it. Enjoy!

**Disclaimer:** Devil May Cry and it's characters are property of Capcom. I am making no money off of this work, this is purely for entertainment.

* * *

**Concentrate Not  
**_by Kitera_

_

* * *

_

**Chapter Two**

* * *

"Look out!" Dante called as he pushed Lady.

She flew several feet forward coming to a rough stop that was hardly graceful as the ceiling above crumbled above. The rubble filled the hallway leaving Lady breathing hard now that her brief adrenaline rush was coming to an end and dust floated through the air. Turning she glared at the wall as she picked herself up from her crouch. Well wasn't that a the perfect set-back.

"Fantastic"

"What is your problem now?"

Lady whirled hands inching for her guns as she locked eyes with Vergil. However, she forced herself to relax even with the annoyance bubbling beneath the surface. No point in shooting him, she reminded herself watching how he some nonplussed by the course of the events. And why should he be it was undoubtedly his fault.

"You're my problem."

"Am I?"

"You just had to do that. Couldn't take it easy for the buildings sake."

"It wasn't my fault."

She snorted and wiped specks of dust and dirt from her face only succeeding in smudging it across her cheek. Let him see her dirty, she didn't care.

"Like hell it wasn't. You couldn't help but show off." She muttered having to fight her temper to keep her voice level despite the desire to shout at him.

"If I'd been showing off you would still be staring stupidly."

Lady scoffed. "Say another condescending word and I'm gonna shoot you."

"Because you haven't done that yet."

"Do it again...see how that ends."

The snap on the holster echoed in the brief silence as Lady let her expression shift to cool indifference. She wasn't worried about his threat, and why should she be? She'd held her own fairly well last time, sure Dante had been fighting him too at the time but that was just a matter of details. Lady had no doubts that she'd be able to defend herself against a devil such as Vergil.

"Let's just find your brother. The less time I have to spend with you the better." She muttered, shifting the weight of Kalina-Ann on her shoulder. The weapon was heavy but she felt safe with its weight on her shoulder. And the tiny part of her that was still a little girl inside wanted as many security blankets around as possible now that Dante was separated from them.

"Agreed."

Since the ceiling had successfully blocked off any chance of moving in the opposite direction they pressed forward. For some stupid reason this half of the hall was completely barren, no tables, no doors, no decorations beyond the fading carvings in the stone walls. Almost as if once upon a time between his construction and now it had been filled with continually moving water that had eroded and softened the carvings.

But that was of little importance their only option was trying to find a route that would eventually lead to them linking back up with Dante and killing the devils that crossed their path in the meantime.

* * *

Dante on the other hand, heard every word that Lady and his brother had exchanged and smirked. Apparently he wasn't the only one who got under her skin. Now for the trick of finding his way out so that he could go back to playing buffer between his twin the fiery hell cat.

Looking around a way out didn't present itself immediately. The few doors that were on this side of the hall had led to dead end rooms. Each having been meticulously checked for devils prior to the ceiling collapse. Tilting his head back Dante caught a glimpse of light coming from above. It was slight and very faint but it was enough to catch his attention. He whistled at his luck.

"Well what do we have here?"

Climbing a little ways up the wall of rubble Dante began to dig through it, attempting to make the small gap between it and the ceiling larger. It took some effort even for him considering how awkward he had to keep his body positioned. But he did manage to make the opening wide enough to fit his shoulders through without having to do too much wriggling.

Halfway out of the opening and into the room above several devils appeared within the room. For a moment they all stared at each other. The devils surprised to find an intruder protruding from the floor and Dante, well he was just annoyed that his little escape couldn't go smoothly. In a split second though he dropped back through the opening to the hallway just soon enough to avoid getting a few scythes to the chest and head.

It didn't take long for the devils to follow him through the hall but he was waiting, Ebony in hand. If anyone hadn't seen what led to that one would think he'd planned this.

"Guess I get a little of my own action." He muttered and squeezed off round after round at the devils descending from above.

He paused momentarily after the last one turned to dust. For thirty seconds he half expected more devils to come raining down. When none did though he holstered Ebony and once more climbed up through the hole into the room.

It was spacious with more of those fading carvings from the hallways and a few of the other rooms. These though seemed better preserved. Not paying them any mind Dante headed for the door.


End file.
